Share count
501Mpeak FY2022
← All companies ← YOUL Manual YRD → ← YOUL Education Services
YQ, 17 Education & Technology Group Inc.
A capital-intensive business, run on heavy physical assets that must be kept working and earn a return above what they cost to maintain.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Revenue · FY2025
CN¥106M
−44.0% YoY · −39% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM
Cash & investments CN¥407M
Gross margin 48%
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- Situation
- Unprofitable. No sustained operating profit across the record; an earnings multiple has nothing to rest on. What the record does show is revenue, the gross-margin trajectory, and the burn against the cash on hand.
- What moves the needle
- Operating margin has run around −154% through the cycle on a 57% gross margin, the operating line in the red even at its best — so the lever is whether the spending below the gross line can come down enough to clear a profit: revenue growth against the cost curve, and the cash runway until it does. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median −233%, above 15% in 0 of 4 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2018–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMDec 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||||||
| CN¥311M | CN¥406M | CN¥1.3B | CN¥2.2B | CN¥531M | CN¥171M | CN¥189M | CN¥106M | CN¥106M | RevenueRevenue |
| 66% | 57% | 62% | 60% | 61% | 47% | 37% | 48% | 48% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| (CN¥700M) | (CN¥1.0B) | (CN¥1.3B) | (CN¥1.5B) | (CN¥211M) | (CN¥343M) | (CN¥214M) | (CN¥164M) | (CN¥164M) | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| −225.1% | −246.2% | −103.1% | −67.5% | −39.8% | −200.5% | −113.0% | −154.3% | −154.3% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| (CN¥656M) | (CN¥964M) | (CN¥1.3B) | (CN¥1.4B) | (CN¥178M) | (CN¥312M) | (CN¥193M) | (CN¥154M) | (CN¥154M) | Net incomeNet inc. |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||||||
| (CN¥419M) | (CN¥631M) | (CN¥523M) | (CN¥1.5B) | (CN¥464M) | (CN¥212M) | (CN¥139M) | CN¥37M | CN¥37M | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| CN¥16M | CN¥23M | CN¥40M | CN¥65M | CN¥25M | CN¥16M | CN¥12M | CN¥10M | CN¥10M | DepreciationDeprec. |
| CN¥221M | CN¥310M | CN¥777M | (CN¥130M) | (CN¥311M) | CN¥84M | CN¥41M | CN¥182M | CN¥182M | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| CN¥34M | CN¥49M | CN¥90M | CN¥129M | CN¥3M | CN¥27M | CN¥9M | CN¥7M | CN¥7M | CapexCapex |
| 10.9% | 12.0% | 6.9% | 5.9% | 0.5% | 15.6% | 5.0% | 6.5% | 6.5% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| (CN¥453M) | (CN¥680M) | (CN¥612M) | (CN¥1.6B) | (CN¥467M) | (CN¥239M) | (CN¥149M) | CN¥30M | CN¥30M | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| −145.7% | −167.4% | −47.3% | −74.9% | −87.9% | −139.6% | −78.5% | 28.7% | 28.7% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| (CN¥453M) | (CN¥680M) | (CN¥612M) | (CN¥1.6B) | (CN¥467M) | (CN¥239M) | (CN¥149M) | CN¥30M | CN¥30M | Free cash flowFCF |
| −145.7% | −167.4% | −47.3% | −74.9% | −87.9% | −139.6% | −78.5% | 28.7% | 28.7% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| — | — | — | — | -327% | -145% | -106% | -322% | -322% | ROICROIC |
| — | — | -65% | -181% | -23% | -63% | -49% | -54% | -54% | Return on equityROE |
| — | — | −65% | −181% | −23% | −63% | −49% | −54% | −54% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||||||
| CN¥1.3B | CN¥654M | CN¥2.8B | CN¥1.2B | CN¥708M | CN¥477M | CN¥359M | CN¥407M | CN¥407M | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| — | — | — | — | CN¥35M | CN¥59M | CN¥67M | CN¥43M | CN¥43M | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | CN¥0 | CN¥16M | CN¥16M | InventoryInvent. |
| — | — | — | — | CN¥35M | CN¥59M | CN¥67M | CN¥58M | CN¥58M | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| — | CN¥758M | CN¥3.0B | CN¥1.3B | CN¥913M | CN¥631M | CN¥509M | CN¥551M | CN¥551M | Current assetsCur. assets |
| — | CN¥681M | CN¥1.2B | CN¥683M | CN¥214M | CN¥181M | CN¥152M | CN¥294M | CN¥294M | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| — | 1.1× | 2.5× | 2.0× | 4.3× | 3.5× | 3.4× | 1.9× | 1.9× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| — | CN¥918M | CN¥3.4B | CN¥1.6B | CN¥981M | CN¥685M | CN¥550M | CN¥591M | CN¥591M | Total assetsAssets |
| (CN¥1.3B) | (CN¥654M) | (CN¥2.8B) | (CN¥1.2B) | (CN¥708M) | (CN¥477M) | (CN¥359M) | (CN¥407M) | (CN¥407M) | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| — | -2062.1× | -456.1× | — | — | — | — | — | -55.9× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| (CN¥3.0B) | (CN¥4.5B) | CN¥2.1B | CN¥797M | CN¥759M | CN¥494M | CN¥394M | CN¥287M | CN¥287M | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | |||||||||
| 6.1M | 7.2M | 11.7M | 61.8M | 62.9M | 57.3M | 50.2M | 62.6M | 57.9M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| CN¥51.06 | CN¥56.61 | CN¥110.74 | CN¥35.37 | CN¥8.45 | CN¥2.98 | CN¥3.77 | CN¥1.69 | CN¥1.83 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| CN¥-107.83 | CN¥-134.30 | CN¥-114.64 | CN¥-23.35 | CN¥-2.83 | CN¥-5.44 | CN¥-3.84 | CN¥-2.47 | CN¥-2.67 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| CN¥-74.42 | CN¥-94.74 | CN¥-52.40 | CN¥-26.49 | CN¥-7.43 | CN¥-4.16 | CN¥-2.96 | CN¥0.49 | CN¥0.53 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| CN¥-74.42 | CN¥-94.74 | CN¥-52.40 | CN¥-26.49 | CN¥-7.43 | CN¥-4.16 | CN¥-2.96 | CN¥0.49 | CN¥0.53 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| CN¥5.58 | CN¥6.77 | CN¥7.66 | CN¥2.09 | CN¥0.04 | CN¥0.46 | CN¥0.19 | CN¥0.11 | CN¥0.12 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| CN¥-489.14 | CN¥-621.48 | CN¥176.61 | CN¥12.91 | CN¥12.07 | CN¥8.62 | CN¥7.84 | CN¥4.58 | CN¥4.95 | Book value / shareBVPS |
The diluted share count moved ×1.63 into 2020 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.
The diluted share count moved ×5.28 into 2021 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.
Share counts before TTM are restated ×1/8 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
| 7-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | −38.5%/yr | −56.7%/yr |
| Capital spending / share | −43.0%/yr | −57.2%/yr |
| Book value / share | — | −51.8%/yr |
The record, charted
FY2018–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
ROIC
−322%low FY2022
Gross margin
48%low FY2024
Owner earnings vs. net income
Owner earningsNet incomeThe accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.
CN¥30Mowner earningsvs.(CN¥154M)net incomelow FY2021
Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.
In fiscal 2025 the business turned a CN¥154M loss into CN¥30M of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | (CN¥154M) | (CN¥193M) | (CN¥312M) | (CN¥178M) | (CN¥1.4B) |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +CN¥10M | +CN¥12M | +CN¥16M | +CN¥25M | +CN¥65M |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | +CN¥182M | +CN¥41M | +CN¥84M | −CN¥311M | −CN¥130M |
| Cash from operations | CN¥37M | (CN¥139M) | (CN¥212M) | (CN¥464M) | (CN¥1.5B) |
| Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow | −CN¥7M | −CN¥9M | −CN¥27M | −CN¥3M | −CN¥129M |
| Owner earnings | CN¥30M | (CN¥149M) | (CN¥239M) | (CN¥467M) | (CN¥1.6B) |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | 29% | -79% | -140% | -88% | -75% |
Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position .
Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
FY2025 20-F · source on SEC EDGAR →
Will it survive?
- Can it pay its interest? -55.9×Does not cover its interestOperating income (CN¥164M) ÷ interest expense CN¥3M
What this means
A full year of operating profit didn't cover the interest bill. This is the zombie zone: the business depends on refinancing, asset sales, or forbearance to service its debt.
- How heavy is the debt, net of cash? +CN¥407MNet cash, debt-freeCash CN¥246M + ST investments CN¥160M − debt CN¥0
What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by CN¥407M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
- Not enough data
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Is it a good business?
- Not enough dataIndustry peers: median -4%
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
- Positive this year, negative across the cyclelatest CN¥30M = operating cash CN¥37M − maintenance capex CN¥7M (positive this year), after an earlier loss stretch (8-yr median -88%)Industry peers: median -2%
What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 29% of revenue this year, a -88% median across 8 years.
- Are earnings backed by cash? CN¥37MLoss, but cash-generativeNet income (CN¥154M) · cash from operations CN¥37M
What this means
The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did.
How is the cash used?
- Not enough data
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
- Investing or harvesting? 0.69×HarvestingCapex CN¥7M ÷ depreciation CN¥10M
What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.
Graham’s defensive tests · 0 of 3 met
Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.
- Adequate size —Revenue ≥ $2B (a dollar floor) · CN¥106M
What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's floor is a dollar figure — about $2B of revenue as a conservative modern stand-in. This company reports in its home currency and we carry no exchange rate, so we show the figure and leave the size bar for you to apply rather than convert it with a number we don't have.
- Strong liquidity NearCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 1.87×
What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
- Earnings stability MissA profit every year (8-yr record) · 8 loss years
What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
- Dividend record MissUninterrupted dividends · none paid
What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
- Earnings growth —Earnings +33% over the record · —
What this means
Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.
- Moderate price —P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are CN¥-0.44/share (latest year CN¥-0.31), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is CN¥0.57/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.
Durability & moat, 2018–2025
Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.
- Profitable years 0 of 8
What this means
Lost money in 8 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
- Operating margin −191% → −156% (3-yr avg ends)
What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −191% early to −156% lately, median −154% — pricing power intact or improving.
- Worst year 2019 · −246.2% op. margin
What this means
Operations went underwater in 2019, understand why before trusting the good years.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Moderate contestabilityAI is likely to reshape costs and some products here without clearly contesting or sparing the core moat; how the company itself frames it is the tell.
In its own filing Raised, but not as a competitor
The filing raises AI among its risks, but in other terms (security, regulation, energy or the like), not as a competitor to its product; it frames AI mainly as a capability.
The question is whether a moat the record shows as durable outlasts a technology that lowers the cost of part of what the firm sells. The durability is read in the record above, the filing's own framing of AI beside it; the industry label decides nothing on its own.
Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of fiscal year-end, Dec 31, 2025Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
Current assetsCN¥551M
- Cash & short-term investmentsCN¥407M
- ReceivablesCN¥43M
- InventoryCN¥16M
- Other current assetsCN¥86M
Current liabilitiesCN¥294M
- Other current liabilitiesCN¥294M
Current ratio1.87×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio1.82×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio1.38×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capitalCN¥256Mthe cushion left after near-term bills
Deeper floors
Tangible book valueCN¥287Mequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset valueCN¥247MGraham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leasesCN¥5MCN¥5M of it operating leases
Deferred revenueCN¥166Mcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float
From the company's latest filing.
Peers, nearest by economic model
No close industry peers in the catalog yet, so these are the nearest by economic model (capital-intensive), compared on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.
| Company | Revenue | Gross margin | Op. margin | ROIC | Owner earn. margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LINCLincoln Educational Services Corporation | $518M | 57% | 4.1% | 11% | 1% |
| LEGHLegacy Housing Corporation | $117M | — | 35.3% | 12% | -2% |
| CRCLCircle Internet Group Inc. | $110M | — | 1102.0% | -4% | 699% |
| BKSYBlackSky Technology Inc. | $107M | — | -95.8% | -36% | -64% |
| YQ17 Education & Technology Group Inc. | CN¥106M | 59% | -133.6% | -233% | -83% |
| CEPLCapstone Energy Plus Inc. | $106M | 14% | -23.2% | -74% | -19% |
| BFLYButterfly Network Inc. | $98M | 37% | -263.0% | -134% | -179% |
| BLFSBioLife Solutions Inc. | $96M | 66% | -9.6% | -3% | 4% |
| Group median | — | 57% | -16.4% | -20% | -11% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFEnter the home-market price, not the US ADR quote. 17 Education & Technology Group Inc. reports in CNY, and every figure here (owner earnings, book value, the share count) is on that CNY, ordinary-share basis. Enter the price on the same basis: the local-exchange quote per ordinary share in CNY. A US ADR price in dollars bundles the ADR-to-ordinary ratio and the exchange rate, so it will not reconcile with these figures and would throw the multiple off.
Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what 17 Education & Technology Group Inc. has delivered.
CN¥
Base
—
The assumptions
9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.
Enter a price above to run it.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Implied by the price—
Owner-earnings growth, delivered—
Owner-earnings growth, delivered—
Owner-earnings yield—
What a growth belief costs, in multiples
The growth each return requires, at your price
P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)—
P/B—
Graham’s price gate—
Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.
Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%
Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.
Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.
Owner-earnings yield—
High-grade bond yield—
Margin over the bond—
Owner earnings CN¥30M on 501M shares outstanding (a weighted average, the only count this filer tags); net cash CN¥407M. The base is the latest year by default; Normalize values it on the through-cycle median owner-earnings margin (to avoid paying on a peak year). Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.
Cite: Owner Scorecard, "17 Education & Technology Group Inc. (YQ), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/YQ, data as of 2026-07-09.
Manual order: ← YOUL its page in the Manual YRD →
Industry order: ← YOUL the Education Services chapter